Fundamentals of Business, third edition

Abstract

Please note that a 4th edition of the open textbook, Fundamentals of Business, was released in 2023: https://doi.org/10.21061/fundamentalsofbusiness4e. Fundamentals of Business, third edition (2020) is an 370-page open education resource intended to serve as a no-cost, faculty customizable primary text for one-semester undergraduate introductory business courses. It covers the following topics in business: Teamwork; economics; ethics; entrepreneurship; business ownership, management, and leadership; organizational structures and operations management; human resources and motivating employees; managing in labor union contexts; marketing and pricing strategy; hospitality and tourism, accounting and finance, and personal finances. The textbook was designed for use in Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business introductory level business course, MGT1104 Foundations of Business and is shared under a Creative Commons Non-Commercial ShareAlike 4.0 license. An online, interactive, accessible version of this book is available at: https://pressbooks.lib.vt.edu/fundamentalsofbusiness3e If you are an instructor reviewing, adopting, or adapting this textbook, please help us understand your use by filling out this form. If you are an instructor seeking supplementary resources for teaching, please join the listserv for this book and the resource sharing portal. A testbank is now available by request for this book. The testbank is available to any instructor who has adopted Fundamentals of Business in their course. Permanent handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10919/99283 (PDF, epub, and other versions) DOI: https://doi.org/10.21061/fundamentals-of-business3e (eBook-Pressbooks) DOI: https://doi.org/10.21061/fundamentals-of-business3e-vtechworks (PDF, epub, and other versions) ISBNs ISBN (print - color): 9781949373356 ISBN (print - B&W): 9781949373349 ISBN (PDF): 9781949373882 ISBN (Pressbooks): 9781949373875 ISBN (epub): 9781949373363 Are you reviewing or adopting this book for a course? Please help us understand your use by filling out this form. Errata and error reporting View errata Report an error This work is published by Pamplin College of Business in association with Virginia Tech Publishing. Accessibility notice Screen reader accessible versions of this text currently include ePub and Pressbooks versions. PDFs of the text do not currently have all available accessibility features enabled. What’s new? The third edition improves upon the 2016 and 2018 editions. Improvements include:

Data updates Updated figures (graphics and images) modernized to new color palette and to include more representative images of people; Updated content, especially to reflect changes in technology, law, and economics; Updated examples to include companies more familiar to today’s students.

A detailed list of changes by chapter is available in the version notes at the back of the book. Features of the book Each chapter lists learning objectives at the beginning of the chapter and key takeaways at the end of the chapter. The Pressbooks version of this book also includes interactive self-quizzing. Editable files are available in HTML, Open Document, PressBooks XML, ePub, MOBI, and PDF. Selected graphics produced by Kindred Grey are available under a CC BY SA 4.0 license via WikimediaCommons. Table of contents Chapter 1: Teamwork in Business vChapter 2: The Foundations of Business Chapter 3: Economics and Business Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility Chapter 5: Business in a Global Environment Chapter 6: Forms of Business Ownership Chapter 7: Entrepreneurship: Starting a Business Chapter 8: Management and Leadership Chapter 9: Structuring Organizations Chapter 10: Operations Management Chapter 11: Motivating Employees Chapter 12: Managing Human Resources Chapter 13: Union/Management Issues Chapter 14: Marketing: Providing Value to Customers Chapter 15: Pricing Strategy Chapter 16: Hospitality and Tourism Chapter 17: Accounting and Financial Information Chapter 18: Personal Finances Suggested citation Skripak, Stephen J. and Poff, Ron (2020). Fundamentals of Business, 3rd Edition, Blacksburg, VA: VT Publishing. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/99283. Licensed with CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0. About the author About the previous author Fundamentals of Business, 3rd edition is adapted from a work produced and distributed under a Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0) by a publisher who has requested that they and the original author not receive attribution. We wish to extend our gratitude to the original author for portions of their book which were remixed and adapted to form portions of Chapters 1-15 and 17-18 of Fundamentals of Business. If the publisher and author are both willing to allow us to provide attribution to the author while retaining use of the Creative Commons license and continuing to provide free public access, we will gladly and publicly thank the original author here. Stephen Skripak Stephen J. Skripak is Professor of Practice in Management at Pamplin College of Business, Virginia Tech and former Associate Dean for Graduate Programs (2006-2014). He is a senior executive with 25 years of business leadership experience, including positions as General Manager and Chief Financial Officer with divisions of Fortune 500 companies. His background includes financial services, consumer packaged goods, apparel, and industrial companies, with emphasis in turnaround situations. Ron Poff Ron Poff is Assistant Professor of Management Practice in the Management Department at Pamplin College of Business, Virginia Tech, where he teaches management courses. He began his career as an enlisted member of the US Navy Reserves before entering his primary career in supply chain operations then sales and marketing, where he served in executive roles with large corporations for over 25 years. As an entrepreneur, he then founded his own marketing agency. His education includes a B.S. in Business Management, M.S. Marketing, and a Graduate Certificate in eMarketing. Contributors Lead contributor: Ron Poff Managing editor: Anita Walz Reviewers/contributors: Lisa R. Fournier, Kindred Grey, Lauren Holt, Katie Manning, Sarah Mease, Michael Stamper, and Blake Warner Past reviewers/contributors: Anastasia Cortes, Jonathan De Pena, Nina Lindsay, Richard Parsons, Sachi Soni, and Gary Walton Digital and print production: Robert Browder Cover design, figure design, and alternative text: Kindred Grey